1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to location based services, and in particular, to a method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for detecting the location of a mobile device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Detecting the location of a mobile device (e.g., a cellular phone, a personal digital assistant [PDA], etc.) is fundamental to providing location based services (LBS). Location based services are applications/services that utilize or are based on the location of a device. For example, detecting that a device is located on a particular street (e.g., McInnis Parkway) allows an LBS application to provide a nearby theatre (e.g., Northgate Mall Cinema) when a user requests the closest entertainment option. Additional examples of LBS applications include traffic updates, location sensitive billing, fleet management, and asset and people tracking. However, different protocols may be used by different cellular phone carriers to provide location information. Accordingly, in the prior art, LBS applications must be individually configured for each cellular phone carrier to provide location information. Such configuration customization is time consuming, subject to continuous and multiple modifications/updates, and burdensome for LBS providers.
Location Detection Prior Art
As described above, a wide variety of methods/protocols are used by mobile device carriers to determine and provide a device's location to an LBS application. For example, different methods may be used to identify the device. Further, different protocols may be used to communicate with the carrier's mobile positioning server (MPS). Different formats for request/response exchange with the mobile positioning server may also be used. Additionally, there may be different levels of robustness, error handling, and network infrastructure stability. Lastly, there may be differing levels of precision/accuracy in the location provided by the MPS (e.g., the approximate location provided by the MPS could be 150 meters to several 100 meters from the actual location of the device). Thus, while some MPS services only provide a geographic region that a mobile device is within, other MPS services may provide specific coordinates.
The use of such varying methodologies are problematic for LBS providers. The focus of most LBS providers is in the application/business logic that utilizes the location of the device. However, for an application to be utilized in a variety of environments and platforms, substantial time and programming is necessary to customize the application for each cellular provider.